Thus Spoke the Plant by Monica Gagliano, PhD (2018) - Nonfiction

A book about pushing the boundaries of scientific inquiry by experimenting with plants

The book’s subtitle speaks for itself: A Remarkable Journey of Groundbreaking Scientific Discoveries and Personal Encounters with Plants. I’d estimate about 60% of the book falls under “Personal Encounters with Plants” and the remaining 40% under the “Scientific Discoveries” category. Dr. Gagliano dives deep into her conscience-altering experiences with shamans, healers, and other spiritual people from around the world. In detail she explains her encounters with the plants ayahuasca and osha taken in a sacred manner. Fascinatingly, some of her specific ideas for plant experiments derive from encounters with plant spirits. Already some readers might be put off. Plant spirits? Shamans? No way. However, her earnest and logical reasoning provides a backdrop that invites readership trust. Dr. Gagliano is a trained scientist who embarks on spiritual pathways, and I found it refreshing to read something from two seemingly different worldviews blended so well.

Following the scientific experiments Dr. Gagliano explains her conclusions drawn from the experiments’ results. These chapters are roughly outlined like a traditional scientific paper–Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion–but not in those exact terms. Her conclusions expand into realms of philosophy, sociology, psychology, agro-bio engineering, and politics. While her views on these topics are intriguing I think her most poignant and convincing argument is made against our reductionist worldview of how we (mis)understand plant intelligence; and more specifically: how the scientific community is stifling its own potential for new discoveries. The unfortunate implications of this is a muzzling of scientific progress. Dr. Gagliano states, “Of course, excitement and curiosity epitomize the original spirit of science. Still holding strong, the conventional view would have knowledge develop in a linear way; the truth about scientific progress, however, is quite different” (p. 26). She continues throughout the book to highlight how plants' intelligent behaviors are pushing the boundaries of our current scientific ideologies, and how scientists are having a hard time accepting this.

Her experiments lead us to question how much are plants actually capable of? In her first experiment she works with basil, chili, and fennel, knowing that fennel inhibits the growth of plants like basil and chili, while oppositely basil and chili help one another. With a set of meticulously crafted planter boxes, careful placement of each one, and other controlled variables, she concludes that the chili plants were capable of “a previously unknown communication channel” (p. 30). In another highly publicized experiment she tested the famous Mimosa plant–sometimes called the “sensitive plant” because of its ability to close its leaves when touched. Her driving question is “could Mimosa truly learn from new experiences and flexibly alter her behavior?” (p. 59). Again, with close attention paid to scientific method protocols, she concludes with a resounding yes. She includes three more experiments, making it a total of five in all, and for all them she seems confident in her scientific methodology. As a non-scientist reader, her methods seem reliable to me; however, with such highly contestable hypotheses and conclusions, she has faced a plethora of criticism. Her response is sometimes “haters gunna hate” and other times she takes aim at their overarching lack of imagination claiming “Not being open to consider the very nature of our reasoning and assumptions regarding the relationship between brains and memories leaves us no space to seek other possibilities” (p. 67).

Dr. Gagliano’s Endnotes section is rife with resources and a reader could spend countless hours exploring the hard science or philosophical aspects of the book. You could also devote a few hours to simply Googling her name and research. One follow up interview in Forbes is especially relevant to the book because in it Dr. Gagliano explains more about her literal and metaphoric language, defines some helpful terms, and reacts to specific criticisms.

TSTP is for curious readers who are looking for something scientific and personal. Its length of 131 pages and eloquent style makes it a short read. The diction is not overly-complex, but in an arising area of research there is some novel terminology. Ecologists, gardeners, spiritual seekers, and anyone looking for a scientifically intriguing book will likely find TSTP especially enjoyable.

Highest Score - 5 Trophies

Writing: 🏆🏆🏆🏆

Readability: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

Argument: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

Overall: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

September 17, 2020